Tom Cruise Knows the History of Psychiatry

By Frances Romero

The most prominent Scientologist in Hollywood spoke in 2005, and he decided that actress Brooke Shields was wrong and NBC's Matt Lauer was glib. It began when a leaked Scientology video showed Tom Cruise chastising Shields for having used antidepressants and psychiatry to help her through postpartum depression following the birth of her first child. He called psychiatry a "pseudoscience" that could not and should not be trusted to address what he called the false ailment of chemical imbalance. In his interview with Lauer, Cruise repeatedly cited his superior knowledge of the history of psychiatry as justification for his attack against Shields. When Lauer tried to press Cruise to admit that perhaps some people do find antidepressants and psychiatry helpful, Cruise called the journalist glib and urged him to do his homework. When Cruise returned to the show in 2008, he seemed to want to bury the hatchet and apologized to Lauer for his "arrogance."